Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. THURSDAY, AUGUST 4, 1870.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 16, Issue 811, 4 August 1870, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. THURSDAY, AUGUST 4, 1870.

Now that the question of adjusting the representation of the Colony is before the Assembly,—and it is probable organic changes will be made in the whole system of registration and qualification,— we would direct attention to a matter which greatly concerns the electoral body. We allude to the facility which exists for carping objectors to effect the exclusion from the rolls of qualified individuals, or of putting such to considerable iuconvenience and expense in order to maintain their claims. The practice does exist, particularly in outlying districts, for such a person to put in wholesale objections, especially against new claimants ; and if, from any cause, these, or any of them, are unable to appear before the Revising Officer's Court to prove their claims, the objection is allowed, and the name erased from the list. In the other case, where they appear and substantiate their claims, they have frequently to make considerable journeys, besides suffering other inconvenience, expense, and loss of time, for which they get no satisfaction beyond the making of their claim good. This, as is well enough known, is not always sufficient inducement to a claimant to undergo the trouble, and thus many names are annually kept off the lists of voters which ought to be there, at the same time that many others, as of persons deceased, or having left the Colony, are allowed to remain. The reform that we would suggest in the matter is that in all cases where a claimant succeeds in keeping his name upon the roll, against any objection raised, the objector should be liable to be cast in damages to reimburse such claimant for the trouble and expense to which he has been put in defending his case. Such a remedy as this would at all events put a stop to frivolous oljections against qualified voters, while, on th<* other hand, it would not in any way interfere with the expurgation from the rolls of the names of those who cease to hold a right, and which names should be rigidly expunged, as they only afford facilities for the practice of personation.